translating an english application/page to arabic

[dongzky]

Hi All,

Does anyone here has experience on translating an english application to arabic in coldfusion? is there any third party or can it be done in cf? how much work does this involve? any ideas/suggestions? thanks.

[Newsgroup_User · Accepted solution]

dongzky wrote:
> Does anyone here has experience on translating an english application to
> arabic in coldfusion? is there any third party or can it be done in cf? how
> much work does this involve? any ideas/suggestions? thanks.

not sure what you want. translations? you need a good translation service (ie
humans). something automatic? nope, won't work beyond baby talk.

if you mean take an english only app and internationalize it (or make it
"i18n"), yes its an involved process but one that's been done plenty of times.
it's not rocket science, mainly drudge work for an existing app.

get the cf8 books (or advanced cf6/7 books), there's a chapter on maikng cf apps
i18n...come to think of it, my chapter's online:
http://www.forta.com/books/0321515463/

[dongzky]

Anybody who has experince in arabic format? I mean i know the arabic data should be in different database. but how about the physical format of the page? english reads from left to right, and arabic is from right to left. So the physical format of the page should change too? I mean, usally, we have our menu at the left side of the page. Will it be at the right side in Arabic? I mean things like that, the physical format of the page. Thanks.

[Newsgroup_User]

dongzky wrote:
> Anybody who has experince in arabic format? I mean i know the arabic data

yes we've built a few arabic (among other locales/languages) apps.

> should be in different database. but how about the physical format of the page?

actually the db/resource bundles should be the "same" (in terms of
process/technology/etc.) for all locales you want to support. you must first
make the app i18n *then* localize it (L10N). or every time you need to add a new
locale you'll have to re-do everything. you'll also have to decide what you mean
by "arabic" as they're are a lot of locales that use arabic. do you mean to also
support farsi or whatever that uses the arabic writing system?

> english reads from left to right, and arabic is from right to left. So the
> physical format of the page should change too? I mean, usally, we have our menu

yes, everything must change including page layout, graphics, calendars, date
formats, currencies, etc. if the app involves flash/flex you'll have to wait
until the flash player supports BIDI (scheduled for version 10, now in beta).

[dongzky]

@PaulH

Thanks for the insights. I am now reading your article and starting to get ideas from it.

[dongzky]

by the way, if we are to convert this thing (the existing app in cf) from english to farsi, how much time do you think would it take for knowing the considerations to be done and the actions? how big is the effort on this?

[Newsgroup_User]

dongzky wrote:
> by the way, if we are to comvert this thing (the existing app in cf) from
> english to farsi, how much time do you think woukd it take for knowing the
> considerations to be done and the actions? how big is the effort on this?

how long is a piece of string?

you have to closely examine the code, db, etc. that alone will likely take
several days. you can then estimate the effort after that.